Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said the deployment of NATO forces in eastern European countries close to Russia would violate of agreements between Moscow and the alliance, the Interfax news agency reported.

Lavrov said even the fact that NATO was discussing deploying troops or installations on territories "closely adjacent" to Russia ran counter to the Founding Act agreed by Russia and the military alliance in 1997, the report said.

Drafting countermoves to the Russian military threat against Ukraine, NATO's top military commander in Europe said Wednesday they could include deployment of American troops to alliance member states in Eastern Europe now feeling at risk.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove told The Associated Press he wouldn't "write off involvement by any nation, to include the United States."

Foreign ministers of the 28-nation alliance have given Breedlove until Tuesday to propose steps to reassure NATO members nearest Russia that other alliance countries have their back.

"Essentially what we are looking at is a package of land, air and maritime measures that would build assurance for our easternmost allies," Breedlove told the AP. "I'm tasked to deliver this by next week. I fully intend to deliver it early."

Asked again if American soldiers might be sent to NATO's front-line states closest to Russia, the four-star U.S. general said, "I would not write off contributions from any nation."

In March, Russian troops took control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, whose inhabitants then voted in a referendum to secede and join Russia. The U.S. and other Western countries have accused Moscow of massing troops on Ukraine's border to maintain the pressure on the government in Kiev, and possibly for military use.

Speaking at the end of a NATO conference in Paris, Breedlove told the AP the Russian armed presence near Ukraine's frontier continues unabated.

To illustrate his point, the general's staff provided AP with a set of commercial satellite photographs they said showed Russian warplanes, combat helicopters, armor, artillery and a probable airborne or special forces brigade deployed in locations east of the Ukraine-Russian border, including along the coastline of the Sea of Azov. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the content of the photographs, which DigitalGlobe, the commercial provider, said were taken in late March.

"What we see there is a force of about 40,000," Breedlove said. "I would characterize it as a combined arms army. In other words, this is an army that has all of the provisioning and enablers that it needs to accomplish military objectives if given them."

The Russians' assets include fixed and rotary wing aircraft, artillery, field hospitals, communications and jamming gear, he said.

Kremlin objectives remain unclear, the NATO commander said. The force could stand pat and intimidate Ukraine solely by its presence, drive south to create a land bridge with Crimea, push along the Black Sea coast to the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and the largely Russian Trans-Dniester enclave of Moldova, or invade other areas of eastern Ukraine where ethnic Russians are demanding unity with Russia, he said.

NATO has already reinforced its Baltic air patrols and is performing daily AWACs surveillance flights over Poland and Romania. Breedlove said he has already received enough pledges of maritime assets from NATO member states to carry out beefed-up maritime operations through the end of the year.

"The tougher piece is, how do we do the assurance piece on the land," the general said. "Because these are measures which are more costly (and) if not done correctly, might appear provocative. And everything we are trying to do in the air, on the ground and at sea we are trying to completely characterize as defensive in nature."

"There is not a shortage of what we can use. It's how do we use this in a measured way that indicates defensive capability so that we don't provoke. And that's what we will be working on," Breedlove said before departing for NATO's military headquarters near Mons, Belgium.

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WEAPONS - sell Ukraine and other Eastern European countries Israeli
weapons that won't make Putin a very happy man with his neighbours all
armed with modern Israeli weapons rather than Soviet era rubbish.

There are no states at risk, there never were. This is all American hype
in order to get support against Russia and to scare Russia, but Russia
knows better and it can defend itself well enough and cause damage to
those who will attempt to attack. America, once again, you lose.

Putin is making a huge bet based on the cards he can see. 1) The US is
deadlocked with a divided Congress that can't even pass the most basic
legislation. 2) Georgia is subdued and would not cause trouble on the
flank. Ditto for Muslim Russians (at least in Putin's theorizing.) 3)
Turkey is in disorder. 4) Assad is winning hands down in Syria, so the
Russian base at Tagus is secure. 5) The Crimea cannot stand alone.
All its electricity, water, natural gas and mot of its food comes from
the Ukraine. Russia must move everything by air or by ferry. The
danger here is that the Crimea will become an economic wasteland
dependent on Russia. 6) The Ukraine has long been courting good
relations with NATO. This is a serious threat to Putin's Pan-Asian
Economic Zone. It is looking more and more like Putin will move on
the eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take the eastern industrial cities
of Kharkov and Dnepropostrovsk and perhaps even Odessa (which would deny
the Ukraine access to the Black Sea.) It is a huge gamble. However,
this is a throwback to the very situation that NATO was built and
trained for. Sqeezing Russia between the Ukraine and Turkey would be
aver desirable position for NATO. Might happen.

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